T-Mobile Alleviating Roaming Costs with eSIM for IoT, M2M Markets

T-Mobile today announced eSIM, a modular solution for connected devices that provides local data rates while roaming. Targeted at the Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M applications, the eSIM will see its initial roaming deal launched for the U.S. and Canada.

T-Mobile will be announcing more supported countries throughout 2014.

T-Mobile’s Un-carrier initiatives have largely taken place in the consumer space but this move sends some of that disruptive behavior to the M2M market. “With eSIM, we’re showing how we’re different than our competitors,” said Drew Kelton, executive vice president of business markets for T-Mobile.

eSIM, available starting today, is configurable out-of-the-box for use with multiple international carriers. In addition to saving on roaming costs, T-Mobile says deploying eSIM can help in simplifying inventory management and removing the need for SIM swapping.

As T-Mobile points out in the press release, ABI Research predicts huge growth for connected devices, with the number climbing from 10 billion in 2013 to 30 billion in 2020.

The potential savings on the enterprise side could be significant, particularly for companies tracking large vehicle fleets.